Time Lapse Video of Building the Stitch and Glue Petrel Class

Over the course of five and a half days this class converts a pile of okoume plywood parts into beautiful kayaks. On the first day the hull is assembled by fitting together the puzzle pieces, "stitching" together the panels with copper wire, spot welding the seams with CA glue, pulling the wires, and then applying dookie-schmutz glue to create a fillet in the seam. The final act of the day is reinforcing the the interior with a layer of fiberglass and epoxy resin. The second day we fiberglass the exterior of the hull and then do all the assembly work on the deck, again finishing with fiberglassing.

Day three has us attaching the deck to the hull and reinforcing the inside seam on both sides with epoxy saturated fiberglass tape. The next morning we clean up the deck and apply a layer of fiberglass on the exterior. Before the day is over we install the coaming. For the fifth day we clean up some of our prior work, work on fitting various small parts and start the finish work on the boat with a fill coat to create a smooth surface on the fiberglass cloth. Day six is devoted to discussing what needs to be done when you take the boat home and cleaning up our mess.

There will be finish work when the boat goes home, including painting on some more fill coats of epoxy, installing hatches and hardware and varnishing.